Venezuela's Maduro entreats Latin America not to isolate him

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

World | Sat Jun 4, 2016 3:05pm EDT

Venezuela's Maduro entreats Latin America not to isolate him

HAVANA | BY SARAH MARSH AND NELSON ACOSTA

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro called upon Latin America on Saturday not to give in to "brutal pressure" from the United States to isolate his government, which is battling intensifying opposition at home and abroad.

The head of the Organization of American States (OAS), that Venezuela views as a pawn of U.S. policy, this week called for an emergency meeting to discuss a possible censure of the country for violating democratic norms.

Meanwhile on Thursday a senior Brazilian official said Brazil may help block Venezuela from taking the rotating presidency of the Mercosur trade group this month, in a bid to prevent Maduro from strengthening his power.

"I call upon the governments of the continent to maintain solidarity, cooperation and understanding and not to submit to ... brutal pressure to isolate Venezuela," Maduro entreated other Caribbean leaders gathered for a summit in Havana.

As Venezuela falls deeper into an economic crisis that includes food and medicine shortages, spiraling inflation and sporadic looting, opposition protests for a recall referendum against Maduro are also growing.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-caribbean-summit-idUSKCN0YQ0RD

[Zorro]

2. Hahahahaha!

Thanks for the laugh!

[Marksman_91]

3. Chavismo is neither socialism nor democratic socialism

It's actually insulting that you compare the Chavista regime to what actual social democracies have. Chavismo is nothing more than a kleptocracy disguised as socialism. I'd actually say that the Chavista leadership ended up being more capitalist than the Kochs themselves. They amassed multi-million dollar fortunes in just a few years by siphoning Venezuelans' oil money into their own pockets. Chavez's own daughter, Maria Gabriela, (who lives quite cozily in NYC, by the way) is reported to have a personal fortune in the billions. So yeah, you could say the Bolivarian-style "socialism" worked, but only for a handful of people while the rest of the population got screwed over. Don't believe me? Look up the news of governor Garcia Carneiro. He's the Chavista governor of the Vargas state in Venezuea, and just this past day he was rescued offshore from the Venezuelan coastline in his big private yacht drunk out of his ass after be drunkenly drove the boat too far into the shore. You sure as hell don't buy a nice yacht on a governor's salary, especially when you're all about preaching socialism.